Evil West is a third-person action-adventure that allows the player to take on the role of linebacker-looking Jesse Rentier as he battles hordes of creatures of the night to save his family and his country. On its face, this seems like a premise that could be fit to bursting with gory fun but unfortunately, isn’t able to ascend to greatness thanks in part to far too many glitches along with a repetitive nature that makes Evil West fall behind some of its cohorts in the industry.
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For a game that hints at the idea that Abraham Lincoln was responsible for creating an underground organization that mass produces giant electric fists for its members to hunt the undead, Evil West has a serious lack of fun when it comes to its story, effectively staying on a straight line throughout its run time. Jesse is joined by his partner in crime, Edgar Gravenor, which opens up the possibility of multiplayer co-op, but it isn’t able to convey a sense of friendship between the pair of gunslingers. Much like the overall story, Jesse and Edgar simply don’t have many layers to work with and it’s a shame because the game’s inability to take big risks and create an off-the-wall story doesn’t live up to its premise. It simply feels hollow.
All is not lost, however, as there are some diamonds in the rough when it comes to Evil West’s supporting characters, along with its head vampires that put a twist on the traditional bloodsuckers, including one of the big bad happening to be a little girl. Unfortunately, once again, the game falls into a trap of not managing to live up to its potential when it comes to repetitive enemy types that you shoot, pound, burn, and tear your way through. Far too often you’ll find yourself fighting the same vampires that look like lumps of flesh molded as if they were clay and while the detail can be seen in the character designs in a pause menu, those details are lost thanks to graphical decisions that will often wash scenes in overbearing hues that drown out any artistic choices.
While you may see the same type of enemies emerging at a steady clip throughout your blood-soaked journey, Evil West certainly gives you a multitude of ways to drive a metaphorical stake through their hearts. Your go-to weapon as either Jesse or Edgar is the electric fist you have at your disposal, which can help you in ricocheting “ticks” around an environment or into well-placed explosives. You also get a good helping of firearms to mix things up, along with an electric shield that gives you the ability to teleport in front of opponents or drag them your way for Old-West Justice.
It’s in its gameplay that the true shining star of Evil West can be found as you string combos together and figure out inventive ways of hunting the supernatural. This fact, however, leads us to our next critique of the action-adventure and it’s a doozy.
When I loaded up Evil West on my PlayStation 5, the game hard crashed five times for me in the first hour. Delivering a Superman punch to a lowly vampire had both the creature of the night, and Jesse, launch over a nearby cliff where I found myself unable to return to the game’s path, but rather, was trapped in a “T-Pose” before needing to hit the restart button manually to get back into the fight. There were more than a few times in fights where hit-detecting was almost non-existent, especially when it came to fighting larger enemies such as the “damage sponge” bat creature. This became particularly frustrating when an enemy was dependent on being electrocuted as it stood in a pool of water and Jesse would whiff his blows, unable to connect his electric dash to a target that filled the screen.
There are also some truly unforgivable graphical complications, where environments will take quite some time to load in and there will be serious screen tearing once it does. I cannot tell you the number of times I found myself spinning the camera around Jesse, only for him to see completely white environments before loading in a second later. The art design for the game’s characters is big and bold but simply falls beneath the weight of its lack of polish.
There’s fun to be had in Evil West but there are far too many chinks in this armor to make it worthy of wearing into the field.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Evil West is currently available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC. It was reviewed on the PlayStation 5 with a review code provided by the publisher.
